The Revenge of Dr Minimini: The Mighty Mites
by TheLilithMachine
Summary: After avoiding jail a second time, Dr. Minimini has been cooking up a tiny secret weapon...and it's powered by sugar, super annoying, and nearly unstoppable. With Astro, Ochanomizu, and Tenma being his targets, will the Mighty Mites be despairing or victorious?
1. Chapter 1

It was deep in the centre of Metro City's shady district, that at 1:37 AM, an enormous fight broke out inside the Cheese Toast Bar &amp; Grill. It could've been that one biker told another biker a thing or two, or perhaps someone didn't get their payment on time and avenged it, and everyone else joined in with the ensuing gong show.

And watching the ongoing fight from the corner of the bar was none other than Dr. Minimini. He sat at a shaded table with a glass of the least expensive wine the bar offered, laughing as a large, tattooed man was thrown over the counter.

"Do these fools even remember what this started over?" he said to himself, as if he had an audience, but while praying nobody noticed him in there. Any time now, his assistant should be arriving with important news.

Across the bar, the fedora and spectacle-clad Hogart ran in through the front doors, ducking a thick mug flying through the air. In a tangle of legs, he found Minimini's table, and he nearly dove into the free chair.

"D-D-Da-Doctor, we got it," he sputtered. "I d-downloaded it to the backup servers, too."

Minimini checked his watch, opened the email server, and nodded in satisfaction upon seeing the upload notice. "Excellent work, Kartoffel! Let's head back to my workshop."

It took a minute or two of deciding precisely when to run out, but soon enough, they were on their way to the edge of Metro City.

* * *

Minimini had taken up living in the shell of an old hamburger restaurant, which he'd remodelled from the inside into a dusty but sufficient apartment and laboratory. A simple hack into the power station's database had provided the place with running water and electricity. The gutted kitchen became the lab, the dining area now a demonstration room, and the closed-off smoking area now Minimini's living quarters. The doctor unlocked the back door to the restaurant and headed in, prompting a loud, tinny bark from his robot dog inside.

The dog sprung up in delight upon seeing Minimini, and he gave it a pat on the head, saying, "Down, down, Spud. We've got business right now."

The robot dog followed the men into the laboratory, where Hogart quickly started up the work computer. He opened a sheet of specifications for an engine, soon standing back, proudly gesturing to the screen.

"This is the Ministry's latest project," he proclaimed. "A robot fuel cell based entirely on waters and sugars! This is the brand new, finalized design, ready to go into production over there any day now!"

"Excellent, excellent..." Minimini smugly played with the rings on his left hand. "Looks like a simple change from the normal hydro-cell. Let's get to work and make a few."

"What are we going to put them in, sir?"

Minimini thought for a moment, and then said, "Take out my Mighty Mites."

Months before, Minimini had 3D-printed a large batch of one of his original designs, a tiny but powerful three inch tall soldier robot. He and Hogart had made approximately 300 copies, before neither man could figure out a proper use for them. Sure, they were made of miniscule and precise technology, but to Minimini, tiny robotics was both a norm and a novelty.

Hogart carefully removed the three-tier crate of Mites from their status cabinet, which had been converted from a broken-down ice cream cooler. Minimini had them set at his work table, and while Hogart slept on a roll-out futon in the demonstration room, began to carefully change the wiring and settings of each Mite's internal battery.

About an hour later, he felt a strange sensation of pins and needles on his upper back. Half-asleep, he threw his right arm behind him and scratched idly where the sensation had been. He rolled onto his back only to hear a cacophony of tinny screams.

Hogart screamed as well, standing up in an instant. Several of the Mites had gathered around him, with a group running out from where he had been laying. Letting his vision focus, he sputtered, "Y-You're up and running?"

"That's right, buddy!" One of them said from the floor. "Long time no see, eh, baldy?"

Hogart didn't notice as he bolted into the lab, shouting, "Doctor?! It worked?"

"Of course it did...!" Minimini said at the table. He was dangling a peanut butter cookie over a swarm of Mites. "And it's even better than I expected!"

He let the cookie drop, and the Mites all jumped on top of it, swatting at each other and biting at pieces of the cookie. Hogart and Minimini both watched them eat, and the room was silent, aside from the sound of tinny jaw movement and crunching.

"I'm really glad to uh, see the fuel cell works, but..." He scratched at the back of his head, still feeling listless. "What are you going to use them for?"

Minimini sat back in his chair with a beaming, ominous grin. "I think it's time for a little more harmless mischief, wouldn't you say?"

Hogart began to grin back, understanding.

* * *

It took maybe ten minutes, and some bribery and shouting, but Minimini soon accumulated the complete army of Mites in front of his media projector. Standing at a screen before 300 faces gave Minimini an old, familiar feeling of teaching at the university; he wasn't sure if he liked the memory or not, and he tried to push out of mind as he opened a photo file of Dr. Ochanomizu.

"This man," he said, pointing at Ochanomizu's nose with his walking stick. "Is group one's target. He's the Minister of Science, Dr. Hiroshi Ochanomizu, and he's ruined far too many of my scientific endeavours."

"Like which ones?" One of the Mites yelled out.

"Yeah, yeah!" Another added. "We've only been active for like an hour! How"

"Hey, I've only been active for ten minutes!" A Mite complained at the back of the group.

Minimini slammed his walking stick on the edge of the table. "Enough _bickering_! We have business to attend to!"

The Mite army yelped, returning to silence. Satisfied, Minimini turned back to the projector screen, continuing, "This is a man who makes it easy to let your guard down. He's timid, quiet, unassuming...but the next thing you know, he's got the authorities after you, and he's stolen your equipment!"

The projector image changed to a photo of Astro. "Now, this one is quite the trouble maker. He's a 4th grade student at Metro City Elementary School, and despite his age, he's a walking Swiss army knife. He's got a number of aliases, too...Astro Boy, "Astro", Astro Ochanomizu, Astro Tenma, Tobio Tenma..."

"How long did it take ya to memorize all that?"

"Mouths shut when I'm talking, #127!" Minimini howled at the table. "Group two, this is your target. This boy is like any other child his age, albeit incredibly armed! Use caution, but aside from that, go wild!"

A cheer rose up from group one of the Mites. Gloating, Minimini switched over to a mugshot. "Group three, you're getting the daunting task of harassing Dr. Umataro Tenma. An ugly name for an ugly man, no? Well, this is the man responsible for my unemployment and premature retreat from society!"

"You mean it wasn't to hide your giant forehead?" A shower of giggles erupted around the source of the voice. Minimini was about to yell again, but paused, considering the remark; a dark smirk spread across his face.

"Good, good...that's the mentality you'll all need! Keep it up, and I just might order a few boxes of donuts!"

Cheers rang out from the Mites, and Minimini swore he could see one being crowd-surfed among the mass of them. He nodded in approval, and turned back to the screen. He said, "Anyone in the company of Tenma is absolute fair game. In fact, all three of these individuals are related in one way or another, and if you all manage to strike them all at once, you'll be gloriously rewarded!"

"With what?!"

_Blast it, _Minimini thought. _I've got to think on their level. Let's see..._

"Unlimited cookies," he declared. "You all run out, I go out and get more until you've got your fill. There are _no_ conditions."

The Mites applauded and whooped, and Minimini couldn't resist but give them a professional bow. After relishing the attention, he began to walk to the lab door, snapping his fingers as he commanded, "All right, everyone! Let's head to the truck for dispatch!"

* * *

"It's a little outlandish," Hogart began to ask, after being silent nearly the entire drive. "Don't you think so?"

"Outlandish is my middle name," Minimini said from the back of the truck.

"I thought it was Quirin."

"Hogart, if you were our targets, would you expect one hundred tiny robots flooding into your house in the early hours of the morning?" A grin slowly spread across Minimini's greasy face. "Those Mites are out on the town, and they've got the reflexes and defence of any street-legal robot out there. All we have to do is wait."

"Y-Yeah, but how do we know they're gonna find the minister, the kid, and the geezer?!"

"Simple..." Minimini crooned as he stared out the window. "They'll succeed because _I_ built them."


	2. Chapter 2

eleven hours later

* * *

The lunch bell rang throughout Metro City Elementary School, and Astro looked around as his classmates started pulling out their lunches, some excitedly shouting at each other.

Ms. Midori stood up, gathering her books. "Okay, everyone," she called out as she headed to the door. "We'll finish the presentations after the lunch hour!"

Astro took a metal lunchbox out from under his desk, opening it to find a water bottle and a full energy cartridge inside, with a handwritten note from Dr. Ochanomizu. It read, _Just in case! Be sure to study hard!_

Astro gently tucked the note into his school agenda's inner pocket, and checked his battery level; he was perfectly fine, but it'd be good in case the soccer meet after school got to be too draining.

"Hey Astro," Benji called out, leaning out from his desk. "Do you wanna play chess? I got a holographic version yesterday!"

"Oh sure!"

Astro was about to get up from his desk when he noticed movement across Benji's desk. He stopped and pointed at Benji's desktop, asking, "Did you start already?"

Benji blinked. "H-Huh?"

"The piece-" Before Astro could finish, whatever he saw skittered onto the floor. It was running in the direction of the door, but Astro moved quickly and caught it in his hands.

He looked carefully through a gap in his fingers, identifying it as a tiny humanoid robot, maybe only three inches tall. It started squirming, and bit into Astro's finger before he could react.

Astro yelped and parted his hands. The tiny robot hit the floor unaffected and ran off, laughing in a high-pitched shrieking voice. Astro glanced back at Benji, about to ask what happened, when he realized the blonde boy was swatting more of the robots off his desk. Maya was shrieking, waving her lunchbag in the air, with tiny robots flying out of her bag clutching animal crackers.

"What's going on?!" Astro poised himself, analyzing the situation. Kenichi and Shibugaki rushed towards him, the larger boy trying to shake some of the small robots off his leg. Some of them were laughing and cursing, making fun of his outfit.

"These little things came out of nowhere," Kenichi exclaimed. "They're wrecking up the place!"

Astro stopped to perform a quick image analysis of the classroom. The structure of the classroom appeared to be perfectly normal...aside from the cracked-open air vent in the corner.

Astro ran forward, arms out and ready to rush into the vent, but he heard a hideous cracking noise underfoot. He stopped, finding the remains of a tiny robot caked on the bottom of his boot.

His eyes widened in shock, and as he gathered it into his hands, he sputtered, "I-I'm so sorry!"

The tiny robot was still able to shout, "Get him, boys!"

Astro was suddenly swarmed by the tiny robots. The boy squirmed as much as he could as they began to climb up his legs, soon covering him, each shouting and pounding on him with their tiny fists. It didn't hurt as much as it just annoyed him.

"Here, I'll help!" Maya ran up to him and started swatting some of them off of Astro with her English duotang. They only latched onto the duotang and started biting away at it.

"Here-! Let me just-" Astro panicked; he lept into the air, letting his foot rockets activate, and flew straight through the nearest open classroom window.

He spread his fingers and his arm jets turned on, leaving Astro to spin around haphazardly in the air. Astro felt like he had been thrown into a blender, and it didn't help that the tiny robots were now hollering insults as they whirled off of Astro and into the trees below. Astro briefly wondered if this was what humans described as nausea.

It took about half a minute, but Astro soon found himself free of the tiny robots. Still hovering over the trees far below, he watched as the tiny robots scurried out of the tree, all unhurt as they ran off arguing with each other. Astro was both worried and relieved.

"Those things must be almost indestructible," he called out to his classmates standing at the window.

"Yeah," Shibugaki shouted back. "But heck, who knows where they came from?!"

Astro flew back in, landing among the other kids, and looked around carefully. The room was now devoid of tiny robot activity, but lunch desserts and torn paper littered the classroom floor. Astro rubbed the back of his neck, trying to process what just happened.

"What did they even try to do…?"

"Nothing that makes sense! Maya looked at her torn-up duotang. "They just came by to cause trouble."

"They ate my baklava," someone wailed from across the room. The room erupted with voices.

"Robots don't even eat!"

"Yeah, like, look at Astro's lunches!"

"You think they were ghosts, for real this time?!"

Astro held up his hands, saying sheepishly, "Hey, I can ingest food, but it just goes into a little reserve tank. I can take water, too, but only as coolant. It seems like these robots run off of organic material."

"That's possible?" Kenichi asked.

"It is!" Astro nodded. "Some robots can detect water or certain minerals from organic material, like how some cars can run off vegetable or fry oil. I think the Ministry was developing some robot fuel cells that can detect sugars too."

Tamao just about fell out of his seat upon hearing this. "R-Really?! Oh wow, that's so cool!"

Astro nodded, adding, "I know! It's kinda top secret, though."

"Do you think Skunk is behind this?" Shibugaki asked.

"I don't think so…" Astro stopped to process the situation again. "This has to be someone who doesn't want money…"

* * *

Elsewhere in Metro City, police case worker Nanora Inoue stood at the entrance to Dr. Tenma's loft. Her small frame seemed even more diminutive before the enormous iron doors. She reached out to ring the buzzer, but the doors began sliding open already; Tenma must have seen her coming by already. He normally had a robot hound to greet her, but today, she was left to walk in alone.

Tenma was very mysterious person, even after so much rehabilitation. Nanora anticipated the doctor being in a bad mood or something, and she sighed as she walked towards the lab. _Maybe later I can finish that RPG I've been playing, _she thought to herself.

Nanora was almost surprised to see the doctor happily working on some destroyed robot he must have recovered from an auction. He saw her immediately and strolled towards her, arms open for a hug, a smug look on his face.

"Miss Inoue, my dear, I'm glad you're here," he said. On the spot, noting her apprehension, he converted the start of a hug into a two-handed handshake. Nanora nodded as he clasped her hand.

"Just coming by for a routine visit!" Nanora replied, relaxing now. "How are you doing today?"

"Fantastic. But, far better now that you're here." He paused. "Are you on your own?"

Nanora shrugged slightly. "Yeah, Nakamura is pretty confident in me taking care of myself—"

Tenma gently gathered Nanora's hands into his, softly cupping them around hers. His face was suddenly reassuringly gentle and his tone just the same. He said, a little smug, "I've missed these visits, as brief as they may be."

"I've been swamped with appointments," Nanora tried to reply as her face tangibly turned pink. She tried to repeat to herself, _Focus, focus!_

Tenma's hands gently slid up her forearms, brushing past the pastel bracelets on her left arm. Her hands went limp, and her satchel hit the ground with a mild _thump_, but she barely noticed.

"What gorgeous bracelets," Tenma purred. "Freshwater pearls?"

"No thank you, I already have plenty," Nanora breathed as her soul hit the ceiling when Tenma's hands rested at her biceps. Tenma laughed warmly at this.

But then he froze. Nanora almost thought he was fiercely staring at her neck, but followed his line of vision to the floor. Her satchel was moving from where it had fallen.

Nanora yelped, jumping away from Tenma, and tried to grab back her bag. It sped up, and she tried to match the pace. She finally got towards the handle, and felt a sharp pinch on the side of her finger. Snatching back her hand only revealed a tiny humanoid robot, and she shrieked, waving her arm in an attempt to shake it off.

Tenma snapped his fingers, shouting, "Etienne! Marcello!"

Two robot hounds bounded into the room and rushed towards the travelling satchel. Tenma rushed over to Nanora, grabbing her shoulder with one hand and the tiny robot with the other. It wriggled in his fist like a battery-powered action figure. In its chirpy little voice, it yelled expletives as it tried to get away.

"Did it draw blood?" Tenma asked, not taking his eyes off the robot.

"No…!" Nanora squirmed farther back from the robot. "Is this something you're working on?"

"I make things with _purpose_," Tenma only said.

The robot suddenly yelled out, "I'd rather be a mechanical pencil than be made by a space cadet like you!"

"Then be _scrap_!" Tenma shouted back at the robot before hurling it onto the floor. It exploded into a mess of tiny pieces. Tenma stooped down to examine the pieces, pulling a jeweller's eyepiece out of his lab coat pocket.

"Well, that was…" Nanora remained frozen in place. "…Interesting."

The hounds returned; one had Nanora's satchel gently clutched by the handle in its mouth, and the other had extended a containment capsule from its back to hold what remaining robots had resisted the attack. Tenma held up one piece from the wrecked robot and peered at it hard through the eyepiece.

"I can't believe it's him again…" Tenma muttered, disgusted.

"Who?"

Tenma stood up, declaring, "Ignatz Q. Reichlich, or "Minimini", as he started going by. Last time I saw him, he was a supervisor in one of the Ministry's research and development quarters. That is, until we found out he was selling prototypes of commissioned weapons. I personally signed the papers to terminate his employment."

Nanora was astounded. "You know who he is _just_ from how he built that?"

"No, because he printed his full name on the inside of the torso casing." Tenma let the piece fall from his hand. "I see he's still not thinking properly."

A Robita model rolled by and began cleaning up the pieces. As Nanora pulled her tablet from her satchel, she said, "I'm going to have to report this, of course. It's an intrusion on your safety, and it's an act of delinquency and trespassing."

"At least he's given me something to do," Tenma said, shooting a look at the capsule of angry tiny robots.

One yelled, "Bite it! We're the Micro Mites!"

"No, you're police property," he shot back. Nanora was already speedily writing a handful of emails to her colleagues.

* * *

Dr. Ochanomizu was attempting to teach human culture to Uran when the robots invaded the playroom. Uran was sitting before a hologram of the latest question: _In which country did the 2021 Siege of DeLuca take place?_

Uran pressed the button marked "Italy", and was treated to perky music and an animation of a clapping cat. Ochanomizu looked up from Uran's scorecard and exclaimed, "Very well done, Uran! One hundred out of one hundred!"

Uran rushed to the doctor, grabbing his arm. "So I can move onto the unit on industry and fashion now, right?"

"Of course!" He was about to give the unit intro when Uran pulled him into a hug so strong he was yanked out of his chair. Uran held onto him where he'd fallen to the floor, cheering regardless.

Robita's timer went off, and she hovered over to the two. "It's time for a recharge, and time for you to finish some paperwork, doctor."

"Ah, yes," Ochanomizu said, getting to his feet. "I'll get another energy drive and some authorization documents…"

Ochanomizu headed to the door, hoping to let Robita take over, when Uran started laughing loudly from across the room. "Hey, we got some new toys in here!"

"We're not toys! We're Mighty Mites," came a tinny scream from the same direction. Ochanomizu stopped dead in his tracks.

Uran was holding a humanoid robot in either hand, clapping them together like dolls as if trying to make them kiss. Suddenly waving one of them around, she exclaimed, "Brbrbrbrrr, gotta blast off and crush that runaway mecha!"

The girl was suddenly swamped around her feet by dozens of other tiny robots. She shrieked and ran in a circle, like a starfish covered in tiny shouting figures. Uran suddenly became furious and started jumping up and down – it was effective in knocking the tiny things off of her, but the room was shaking with each impact.

"Whoaaa there!" Ochanomizu shouted as he hurried over to Uran, and he begun pulling as many little robots as he could at a time. They only broke loose upon hitting the floor, and began trying to climb up Robita's plating.

"Doctor, hurry to the elevator—!" Robita beeped loudly, hovering as fast as she could into the still-open elevator shaft. Ochanomizu and Uran followed suit, Uran now clutched over his shoulder. Reaching it in time, Ochanomizu hammered the Close Door button as the swarm of robots rushed towards them. The doors slid shut, possibly crushing one in the process, but the group didn't notice as relief set in.

After a moment, Ochanomizu opened his watch, contacting his office. "Yuko, please lock general access to the playroom, and send an investigation team up to it. It seems we've had a security breach."

"Certainly, doctor," Yuko said as she hurriedly tapped something on the other end. A sharp pinging came from across the room. "Ah, you've got a call from an unlisted number!"

"Put them on hold, please." Ochanomizu couldn't help but feel unnerved. _Who could this be now?_ "I'm on my way to the office."

Uran knelt down and picked up some of the debris from a crushed tiny robot. She said as she examined it, "So these things are Mighty Mites?"

"It seems to be what they identify as."

Uran held out the piece, waving it towards Ochanomizu's face. "Check it out! A little hand!"

"Ah, yes," the doctor replied as he tried to hide how grossed out he was. The elevator opened up in front of his office, and the three strolled in, finding Yuko in front of the large vidcom screen.

"I-I'm sorry, doctor," she sputtered. "He refused to be on hold-"

Tenma glared down from the other end of the screen. "Ochanomizu...would this happen to be one of yours?"

With examination tweezers, he held up one of the wriggling Mites. Tenma's glare was enough to practically put frost on the office windows.

"You got those too-?!" Ochanomizu gaped at the screen. "What on earth is going on?"

"I did manage to procure a clue..." Tenma said, carefully removing part of the Mite's back armour. He held it as closely to the camera as possible. "Recognize this name?"

"Dr. I...Q..." The pieces came together immediately, and Ochanomizu felt dread well up in him. "Dr. Minimini?!"

Uran bolted upright, horrified. "That's..." she gasped, looking up to Ochanomizu. "That's the guy who got me sick, right?"

Tenma's glare wore off, leaving him with a puzzled stare, asking, "Have either of us offended him recently?"

"Not that I know of..."

"Ah, another call," Yuko interrupted. "It's coming from Astro's school. Should I make this a conference call?"

"Certainly, Miss Yuko." Ochanomizu watched as the screen split to accommodate Astro on screen.

"Doctor, no..._doctors_," Astro said as he noticed the two screens. "You won't believe what happened! All these little robots came in through the-"

"Air vent?" asked Ochanomizu and Tenma in unison.

"Yeah!" Astro paused. "How'd you know?"

"We got the exact same treatment..." Tenma looked back, resigned. "It's Dr. Minimini, as you know him by."

Astro's eyes widened as far as they could go. "H-Him?! What does he even want?!"

"Looks to be minor mischief at this part of his plan..."

"Finish your classes, Astro, and come straight to the Ministry afterwards," Ochanomizu ordered gently. "We'll have some of these little robots brought up to our lab. Tenma, would you be able to bring any you may have caught?"

The doctor in black nodded sternly. "Certainly. We'll be right over."

Tenma hung up without another word. Astro nodded back at Ochanomizu, saying, "I've just got social studies and a chemistry test. I don't think I'll be at the test long, so I'll come by right after I finish."

"Don't rush yourself, okay? Be sure to take as much time on the questions as you need."

"All right, doctor!" Astro said. "I know I'll do well! Talk to you later!"

Astro hung up the vidcom, and hurried out of the school office before lunch break would end.


End file.
